The Speech of President of the CZSO

Dear Ladies and Gentlemen

The international conference “Statistics – Investment in the Future” we are opening by this plenary session is held on the occasion of the 85th anniversary of our (originally Czechoslovak) statistics. At the beginning of last century already the establishment of the new republic were aware of the significance of statistics for successful administration of the country, and no wonder that it was statistics that one of the first legal rules was concerned with (the statistical office was established by the law of 28 January 1919 – i.e. precisely three months after the birth of the Czechoslovak Republic).

Eighty-five years is a very long period for human life. Understandably, we, who are here, cannot remember the period 85 years ago. Many things have changed – life style, structure of the economy, social conditions, administration of the state, and international relations. What changes have our society and statistics actually experienced over those 85 years?

We looked for the answer to this question in a very significant book. It is not surely by accident that we, as statisticians, resorted to our oldest statistical yearbook of 1920 which was brought out by the State Statistical Office and lists very interesting data on its 100 pages. Here are some figures for Czech Lands (usually for 1910 or 1913, before the Republic was born):

• the population of Prague of that time was 224 thousand, today it is five times more – close to 1 160 thousand (the CR today has about 10 200 thousand inhabitants),
• almost 3.5 million individuals (incl. household members and domestic staff) were engaged in agriculture, compared to less than 200 thousand today,
• about a quarter of deaths occurred within one year of age, infant mortality was as high as 7%, compared to only 4 per mille today,
• about 97% of the population could read and write, compared to zero illiteracy today,
• there were 8 universities in the country, compared to 24 today,
• there were 20 banks and 1 192 savings banks of various forms in the country, compared to 37 financial institutions of the commercial bank character today,
• there were 672 breweries in operation in the country, compared to 74 today,
• there were 235 strikes in the country,
• there were as many as 49 thousand main telephone lines for subscribers in the country – today these numbers differ by order of magnitude: we have more than 12 million main telephone lines including 8.5 million mobile subscriptions today
• there were about 3 thousand cars in the country, compared to about 3.5 million we use today.

Contrary to this, the table on the extension of 11-hour maximum working time or on funds for orphans belong to history. Nowadays, statistical yearbooks having as many as almost a thousand pages bring data on the environment, culture and sports, social security, science and technology, new services (including new ways of transport), energy, national accounts.

One can realize the revolutionary changes that affected the life of our society by having a mere look at a basic statistical yearbook. The already mentioned science and technology brought discoveries that enormously shaped the economy and our lives, especially in last decade. Changes in many branches such as chemistry, information technology, communication, and transport, which took centuries or decades in the past, are so fast today that, as we frequently realize, neither nature nor human society can respond to them in an adequate manner. As industries and services develop, society puts more and more emphasis on economic prosperity. Distances become shorter and the independence of national economies diminishes in the economic life. Globalisation ceased to only be the matter of economic development, but it is accompanied – in this context – by the need to deal with social issues and environmental problems and to ensure sustainable development on the Earth. And while some phenomena are a distant memory, others emerge for society to address them (migration, economic changes affecting the traditional concept of families, etc.).

Main problems of the current world thus touch all of us. To be able to cope with them, we must know a lot. And to be able to cope with them together, this knowledge must rely on statistical data grounded on single standards, on data governed by standard methodology and based on the same concepts. This is why harmonisation of statistics on an international scale is so important. Only under these conditions can we compare individual national economies, their development and life conditions of people living in different countries. Only in this way can we assess, using aggregates, the situation and development in different parts of the world.

Under our conditions, the transformation of the economy and society which occurred in the wake of political changes greatly affected the unusually fast development at the close of last century. All this made a great impact on our official statistics. Preparations for the accession to the EU entailed alterations and changes in the contents of statistics and the methods used. However, the transformation of statistics also affected the mission of official statistics and the principles of its functioning. We adopted the Fundamental Principles of Official Statistics and to ensure harmonization of our statistical legislation with that of the EU became our priority. To become a full-fledged member of the EU, however, also implies not only to respect agreed rules, but also contribute to further development of statistics in this community. We became a member of one of the most significant economic groupings in the world – and connected with this is our responsibility in the other countries and international organizations.

Czech statistics has thus completed the process of its integration into significant international communities. The integration took two directions – (i) more distinct involvement in international statistical activities and (ii) incorporation of elements of international cooperation into statisticians’ activities and reliance on international standards. By this, statistics reacts to the development of economy and society which request in the current globalised world more data at a higher level than the national one is and fulfils its mission much better and more thoroughly – it makes it possible for international comparisons to be increasingly better.

Allow me in this connection to come back once more to our statistical yearbook of 1920. The yearbook is trilingual (Czech, French and German), but it contains few international comparison data (only production of sugar in selected countries). The current yearbook of ours, which is bilingual (Czech-English), lists an array of comparable data on various areas. For instance, the statistical yearbook to be brought out in the autumn will give structural indicators used to monitor the fulfilment of the recommendations of the Lisbon summit. Other publications with internationally comparable data come out, too – one of them you have among the documents of this conference. There is an increasing number of new data and publications. New forms of data dissemination arise – more and more data can be found on Internet pages. Statistics are easy to access for many users, even behind the borders of our country.

The development over past 85 years changed the contents of official statistics in response to new phenomena and processes in the economy and society, as well as methods and procedures used. Cooperation of statisticians widened a lot. In the frequently quoted “information society”, we are literally flooded with information. For this very reason official statistics must fulfil its mission well and stand the competition. Statistical data on how often official statistics is resorted to for making decisions are not - and cannot be available. The reactions of our users whom we maintain close contacts with suggests that they do need statistical data and apply them (and it is not only the case of GDP estimates, unemployment or inflation). We conduct surveys on our users’ satisfaction as far as statistical data are concerned and strive for getting suggestions on how to improve our outputs and services. Inquiries taken in users and regular assessments of Internet pages access numbers belong to ways to get appropriate statistical data on the use of our statistics.

To respond to users’ needs and produce relevant statistical data is what we consider as crucial. By this I mean data provided in time, with sufficient accuracy and accessible – put another way, quality data whose production will burden neither the statistical office nor the respondent very much. These requirements are not easy to meet. Requirements for new statistics entail additional system demands and needs, e.g. the use of confidential data for research or statistics on globalisation. These needs call for, among other things, amending the rules laid down to ensure individual data protection, including amendments to national legislation on statistics. The Fundamental Principles of Official Statistics that were adopted by the Conference of European Statisticians 10 years ago and confirmed by the UN Statistical Commission lay down another 9 principles in addition to the above-mentioned confidentiality one. These should be observed by official statistics to ensure effective execution of its mission. They include e.g. independence, integrity and credibility of official statistics.

The Fundamental Principles of Official Statistics are an example of international cooperation of statisticians that did not directly resulted in purely statistical products (classifications, indicators, etc.), but in rules for the functioning of official statistics. Adherence to these rules contributes to fulfilment of the role of official statistics and makes the cooperation much wider. This is also confirmed by the harmonization process of our statistics in the preparatory phase of the accession of the CR to the EU. For the process did not include increased efforts for our statistics only; it also involved experts from many EU member states, marked support from Eurostat, and use of Phare assistance programmes. The transition to brand-new statistics in this country (as in the other candidate countries and countries acceding later) was thus much faster and more efficient than it would have been in the absence of these conditions.

The current development of statistics as to filling the needs of statistical data users gives evidence of the rise in requirements for disposable statistical data and the extent of related services. It is an open secret that this process is tied in most cases with an adequate increase in working capacity and resources allocated to statistical offices and other workplaces of the state statistical service. Due to limited resources efforts are exerted to find methods and forms of work that enable us to improve quality and effectiveness. Brand new approaches applied to organization management (the European Foundation for Quality Management model), strategic planning and management, and systematic improvement of quality belong to them. One of the crucial elements of this endeavour is also the widening cooperation of statisticians who strive for a certain division of labour and for specialization (e.g. in the framework of the Centres of Excellence considered under the ESS). Our experience confirms that we have in common not only statistical data, classifications, concepts, and methods, but also problems addressed by statisticians of many countries and international organizations.

As producers of official statistics we know that to produce statistical data is not any easy job to do. Statistical data are not a simple product at all if they are to meet all requirements for quality which differs from one family of users to another – it differs in terms of content, timeliness, accuracy and comparability. The data must be easy to get and be accompanied by needed metadata. Their dissemination comprises a number of activities and they must serve not only politicians or economists, but also the largest public possible. Hence, it is not by accident that the current act that regulates the activity of our statistical office and other related entities is the act on the state statistical service. For the point is that not only production of data is involved; what is primarily involved is the service for a wide spectrum of users, financed from public budgets.

Users often appreciate the significance of statistics as late as the moment they need statistical data to sort out their problems, as well as when they use them to support their decisions affecting development in the period to come. To ensure official statistics, however, is a long-term task which does not concern time series only. It also implies to adequately prepare experts, who will ensure the development of official statistics in future years, at national and international levels, as well as to respond to emerging needs of users.

Generally, we cannot take statistics for goods or service only. We should see it as an investment first of all. An investment that brings huge benefit to whole society, especially if users can apply statistics and statisticians can use available capacities and possibilities offered by international cooperation, exchange and sharing of views, findings and experience, etc. as much as possible. Communication among all interested actors is a basis for implementing particular measures at national or international level.

When we thought a year ago about the way to commemorate the 85th anniversary of our statistics, we took account of this fact and decided to mount an international conference to enable the participants to give their opinions of issues dealt with by official statistics today. We are happy that our invitation was accepted by those

• who are experts in various domains of economic and social statistics,
• who are aware of the significance of system approaches and activities important for fulfilling the mission of official statistics,
• who represent producers and users of statistical data.